Journey started... Delhi to Dehradun

On 12th of April around 10:30 pm our journey started from Delhi to Dehradun and reached early morning at 3 am.

Travel was always been part of our soul searching. In this duration, we shared lots of thoughts and enjoyed the journey with my best buddy. Or dosto ki taang khichne main to hmesa hi maja aata hai ;) Sometimes it's very tough to keep alive your passions without a job and ye kamine dost hi hote hai jo aapke girne par aapko uthana jante hai ;)

We waited for 2 hrs to take another bus for Sankari from Prince Chowk and at 5:30 am we took the first bus to that route). Prince Chowk is a local bus stop which is 4 km away from ISBT Dehradun. Chai ki chuskiyo k sath ye 2 ghante ka samay bhi bit gya.

Prince Chowk to Sankari - Bus ride on Sadabahar Bus

It's was a 9 hours journey. We were only sleeping like a child on each others lap one by one and waiting for our destination. It's was a local bus (Private Bus) jo kabhi khali ni rahti so maine ise ek naam dia Sadabahar Bus. Finally, we reached Sankari at 4 pm.

In the beginning, we thought we will camp at Juda Ka Lake (our 1st milestone probably) but it was not possible for us because raat ki chaadar dheere dheere apni jagah bana rahi thi. So we decided to stay there in Sankari.

The sky was clear and we couldn't miss the vibrant orange beautiful sunset. We embrace the nature at its best at the end of the day with a hot cup of tea. We stayed overnight at GMVN (Garhwal Mangal Vikas Nigam) rest house. If you do not want any luxury hotel then GMVM is a good place to stay with a very cheap price of 500 rupees per night.

It’s always nice to talk with the another group and apne local pahadi bhai. So we did a little chit chat with them, gathered some useful information about the trek and finally went to bed. Bye bye, good night.

Sankari to Kedarkantha Basecamp and getting lost in between

In the morning we packed the bags and got ready for the Base Camp of Kedarkantha at 7 am. Kept a bottle of water, dry fruits and some aloo ka parathas for the journey. After breakfast, we started our trek to Juda Ka Lake (1st stop supposedly) and then base camp which was our final destination for that day.

When we start climbing everything went smooth and we enjoyed the morning freshness and fragrance of that place. After 2 km we saw the small tea\maggi stall. Pahadi hai to chai to banti thi. We clicked some beautiful picture with the lady (owner), for our wall of fame. Juda ka Lake is only 2 km from there.

Like every other filmy story, trip mai ek climax bhi ata hai. Now this trip had taken a new name "Getting Lost Trip". Sometimes that title looked funny to us and sometimes it felt dangerous. We were trekking alone without any guide.

When we reached near Juda Ka Lake, there was a ground before that, there were two paths and we got confused on which is the right one. We choose the left path, which we thought was the right one. We crossed two peaks (Pahari) but nothing at the end and no way to cross another peak, because it was all covered in snow.

It was already 4 pm and time was not waiting for us. We had to find our way back, we took the same path for our return. Sometimes we shouted and laughed on each other. An interesting fact, that again we forgot our way back. It was like we are lost in that Jungle.

Mausam bhai apne aap mai angraiyan le raha tha. We could hear the sound of clouds and rain from far, we were lost and scared (A little bit). We started running with those heavy bags. After half an hour we saw some people and my friend ran and shouted loudly because he saw someone other than me since morning. And finally, from nowhere we found Juda Ka Lake. Now I understand what he was shouting “Juda ka Talab mil gya”. Our faces glittered with a million dollar smiles.

The lake was covered with all the arc tree. It's a small lake and it looks like a small baby who sits on the mother arc tree laps. We talked with the people, spend few minutes there and enjoyed the surroundings. We spent less time so we could not get too carried away with the view because we still had to reach Base Camp of Kedarkantha.

We are ready for base camp, it was a 45 min journey from the lake. We followed the beautiful path as instructed by the group and we reached base camp around 6 pm.

The "Getting Lost Trip" again takes a new name “The Girl with the Red Bag” (named by my partner).

So we unpacked our bags and pitched the tent. Now we were ready to take some rest, after 11 hours of trekking. After dinner with locals, we went to sleep in taaro ki chaw main.

Basecamp to Kedarkantha peak, the final destination

Yehhh... its time for our last destination of the trip. The view of Kedarkantha peak from base camp is beautiful. When I saw the peak, it felt like so many dreams came true.

So nikal pade hum dusri toliyo ke sath at 7 am. We climbed the path covered in snow, leaving behind the footprints. It was my first experience in snow. The sky was clear and the weather was too sunny. It felts nice when you get mesmerized by the beauty during the initial walk. After an hour of the gentle climb, we reached a shepherd hut and drank some tea. From there we climbed alone because other group was taking a rest and hume usne aage jana tha.

So time passed with endless snow and the muddy path to reach the summit. Don’t stop dost bus five min more and we will stand on the top of it, my friend whispered in my ear and whispered because we were too tired of even talking loud.

Nothing can explain how we felt at that high peak. In my filmy style we were like vo bhairav ka mandir hume mil hi gya. Patani vo bhairav ka mandir tha ya ni bus ek dua magana chahti thi ek or trip. All the time in the trek Ye Jawani Hai Deewani movie thoughts were roaming in my mind. Bus nasha tha un paharo pe. We had taken a long breath and we were stoned by the beauty we saw from there.

After capturing some beautiful memories my friend slept there for half an hour. And he said "that was the most peaceful sleep he ever had in so many years". And I was busy absorbing all the positive energy and beauty from that peak. So many thoughts, dreams, goals came in my mind at that time. It's like all the bad thoughts and tension was going out from my mind and getting defeated by the beauty there. We Hug each other and enjoyed the moment and said our goodbye to the virtue.

Now we took around 2 hours to get to the base camp again from the summit and back to Sankari on the same day via Kota Gaon route and reached around 7 pm in the evening. The next day we came back to Dehradun and from there back to our so called Hell ;)